Two weeks ago we carried a piece entitled New Zealand’s Nixon by Bryan Gould about the practitioners of “attack politics … whose natural milieu is the cesspit” and one New Zealand National party (i.e. conservative) politician in particular. This week she resigned in disgrace.

Judith Collins’ resignation has, it is suggested in some quarters, allowed a line to be drawn under the whole dirty politics saga. We can, it seems, get on with the “real issues” of the general election (due on 20 September). Such optimism, however, seems entirely misplaced. Continue reading →

Many explanations are offered for the fact, as evidenced by both opinion polls and falling voter turnouts at elections, that voters in New Zealand and across the western world seem increasingly disenchanted with democracy.

Perhaps the most obvious reason for the voters’ disaffection is their sense that politicians, having solicited popular support and got themselves elected, then seem to lose interest in the proper purposes of government. In modern times, newly elected governments seem to have just one over-riding priority from day one – to hold on to power by getting themselves re-elected.

Rather than set about the task of achieving real progress in the country’s interests and then submitting their achievements to the electorate’s judgment, it is all too often apparent that there is just one main focus for governments, of whatever colour – to persuade the voters that such progress is being made, whether it is or not. It is the appearance rather than the reality that counts. Continue reading →